May Madness

Hey all, sorry it's been so long! We have been so busy in the lab setting up the new soil experiment that I haven't blogged in quite awhile.
The experiment is something Janet Joey and I got to set up on our own without Tom's advice. It was fun to see exactly what needs to be determined before you set up an experiment and just how hard it is to find a suitable form of measurement.
We picked 20 strains each out of 25-28 strains and then placed colonized sticks of the 20 strains in test tubes and large petri dishes to measure the lateral and radial growth of each fungi.
Let's just say it sounds easier to set up than it really was. Stuffing test tubes is no fun but we got everything running and I will get to take my first set of measurements tomorrow. :)
Other than that, our diesel experiment is wrapping up and we're planning on starting some new sticks for our master collection but this time we're going to use toothpicks instead of cut up Popsicle sticks.
Well, thats about it for now, I will blog again soon and I promise I won't forget to add some pictures!!
-C